Issues

Affordable Housing
We not only need to expand the City’s affordable housing inventory, but we also will need to develop housing for those who are making too much for affordable housing and not enough to buy a home in the fair market. We need to maintain strong and proactive partnerships with Community Development Corporations and affordable housing developers at City Hall to increase mixed-use & supportive development projects. As your City Councilor Brian will advocate to develop responsibly, provide housing to low income, working, senior, and professional class. Housing is a fundamental right. As a City Councilor, Brian will protect that right. He supports an expanded definition of “affordable housing” that makes the criteria easier to reach for hardworking families and individuals.

Pathways to home ownership
By creating pathways to homeownership, we address the racial wealth gap in our city and displacement due to lack of affordability. Brian will advocate to expand successful home buying programs and build partnerships with financial institutions that can create mortgage products that will increase buying power, provide down payment assistance and other supports for homeowners. As your City Councilor Brian will advocate to promote and expand programs that promote homeownership  and incentivize financial institutions to create mortgage programs that create equity in underserved communities. Homeownership is a tool to building wealth, savings, and economic stability. For many people, it is their largest financial asset. As City Councilor, Brian will promote and foster programs to make homeownership a reachable and tangible goal for all.

Abandoned Housing Initiative
Let’s revitalize our community and utilize all the tools at our disposal. No one wants to see derelict and abandoned properties in their neighborhoods. Leverage existing assets is a commonsense solution. Brian will advocate having abandoned properties restored to provide housing or enter a receivership program, where the properties will be used to meet the goals of the neighborhoods. Brian believes that community land trusts (CLTs) can serve as a tool to provide local, community-centric revitalization of abandoned properties. Where appropriate, our historic architecture should be preserved with initiatives to incentivize retrofitting and upgrading these properties into the 21^st century.  As your City Councilor Brian will use all City resources to increase our housing inventory.

Vacant Lot Development
District 4 has a large number of vacant city lots that can be used to provide affordable housing, parks, farms, and a workforce housing model. Through the development of these city vacant lots, we can create jobs and establish developer/contractor mentor programs that will directly benefit district 4 Black and Brown small businesses and will establish socio-economic value to our community. The development process needs to be transparent and involve the community in the decision process. As your City Councilor, Brian will make sure our communities’ voices are heard in the development process of our neighborhoods. Developments in our community need to fit our needs and include the community as equity partners.

Zoning Reform
The zoning process must be made more transparent, accountable, and equitable to align private development with community needs for stable housing, safe streets, open space reliable transportation, food access, and a healthy environment. As your City Councilor Brian will create a District-wide plant that allows our District to grow in a way that also benefits and protects current and long-time residents. Overhauling our zoning code will result in fewer variances, ease Zoning Board agendas and enable residents to better anticipate and define what their neighborhood will look like in the years to come.

Brian believes that zoning can be a tool to encourage and foster development in a way that propels District 4 into the future while helping alleviate our City’s housing issues. As City Councilor, Brian will support increasing the number of affordable units required by developers, expanding the definition of transit-oriented housing to qualify more properties for affordable housing development benefits with the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, and advocating for the implementation of transfer of development rights to enable more efficient development of housing stock.

Expand Senior Housing

We cannot, as a society, leave our senior citizens behind. Boston has historically lacked strong initiatives to make housing affordable to seniors and keep them in their homes. As a member of City Council, Brian will support initiatives and programs to support our senior citizens. This includes programs aimed at preventing housing loss, expanding access to legal aid for senior citizens facing eviction or victimized by senior-targeting monetary scams, providing expanded outreach regarding resources available to seniors such as grants, tax credits, other forms of relief, and assisting seniors wishing to downsize.

City Services
With the advancement of technology our city services have the potential of being more accessible. There is no reason we have to trek down to City Hall for City services.  Information should be easily accessible, whether in person, over the phone, or on the internet. As your City Councilor, Brian will work with department heads to mobilize City Hall bringing the most used city services offered to our neighborhoods in readily accessible forms.

Community Office Hours
It is important that we address issues promptly, hear from constituents regularly and educate our community on policy/programs available. Through constant engagement issues and maintenance will not spiral out of control. As your City Councilor Brian will host office hours regularly within the District and ask other elected officials to be present. Brian will also walk communities regularly to hear from neighbors and have a visual of present opportunities/issues.

Redefining Public Safety
We must pursue new and better ways to respond to public safety in conjunction with our communities. This will ensure accountability and address issues that continue to be overlooked. Homelessness and mental health-related 911 calls are on the rise. Brian’s solution to this issue is to redirect these calls to trained public health professionals. Every 911 call does not require a gun and a badge. Expand on programs to get mental health resources to our district.

Increase Accountability
For many people, encounters with the police can be dangerous, uncomfortable, and life-altering. Brian supports initiatives to increase accountability in our police department. As a member of City Council, Brian will support the newly created Office of Police Accountability and Transparency, an independent civilian review board charged with investigating and providing accountability for police misconduct in the Boston Police Department, and foster its growth and development into a highly efficient tool for maintain accountability and trust in our police department.

Youth Development
Youth programs shaped Brian’s life. Exposing our youth/young adults to opportunities is the way to combat violence. We need to invest in our youth by ensuring access to paid summer jobs and opportunities during the school year. We also need to elevate youth voices, providing pathways to college/careers, teach them life skills, and expand their exposure to curriculum, and possibilities. As your City Councilor Brian, will advocate expanding the school day by providing before and after school programs and making summer enrichment mandatory. Working with nonprofits and private institutions to build support systems in our community to influence growth. ‘Creating accountability and making investments in our youth are essential to community building.

Neighborhood Task Force
Creating a neighborhood task force that is made up of trusted community organizations, churches, young adults, and businesses we will be able to bring solutions to issues in the neighborhoods we reside/conduct business in. As your City Councilor, Brian will form a neighborhood task force by bringing stakeholders together to engage our community to bring about an opportunity, create space where conflicts can be resolved and resources can be obtained that will curb the violence in our communities. As a lifelong resident in the District Brian has formed relationships and has the skillset to make this possible.

Early Education
We need to set our children up for success and one way to foster that success is early childhood education. Research has shown that educating children early leads to better outcomes in adulthood. Brian wants to invest in our children’s future at an early age and supports the implementation of universal pre-k for all 3 and 4 year olds and affordable, high-quality child care for all infants and toddlers.

HUB Schools
Our schools can serve as a HUB for essential services to be centralized to help students and their families with their socio-economic issues. By centralizing services we can engage student families to have them a part of the school community. These services will help alleviate issues that families face that inhibit students from learning. As your City Councilor, Brian will advocate bringing these services into our Public Schools because it is essential to service the whole child which includes their family.

Early College/Career Programs
Education benefits society at large. Research has shown that higher rates of education lowers crime, improves health, and reduces poverty. Brian supports the development of programs to spur education and career development. This includes initiatives aimed at fostering early access to colleges and vocational training programs for our youth.

COVID-19 Relief & Assistance
It is a sad reality that many small businesses have been destroyed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Current relief programs are filled with red tape and restrictions that make obtaining relief a difficult task for small business owners. Small businesses are suffering across the City. Brian supports measures to foster and facilitate the success of small businesses. In the City Council, Brian will fight for legislation to address the specific needs of small business owners to weather the damage caused by COVID-19. He supports pandemic related assistance targeting small businesses, as well as initiatives to increase access to resources available to all small business owners and opportunities available to minority and women-owned businesses.

Workforce Development
Our community must have access to sustainable jobs and jobs of the future. Creating pipelines between workforce development programs and private institutions will place our community in industries of the future such as Healthcare, IT, Renewable Energy, and Trades. As your City Councilor, Brian will meet with private institutions to identify workforce demand. Work with higher education institutions, certificate programs to provide training programs to individuals that seek to add to their skill set to meet the demand in sustainable industries and industries of the future.

Small Business Support
Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy. We must provide support, especially during recovery to new/existing small businesses. By offering support and resources to small businesses we encourage creative thinking and find solutions to problems. And Brian believes starting a small business in Boston should be simple and advocates for streamlined licensing and permitting processes. As your City Councilor Brian will advocate bringing more resources to small.

Safeguarding Creativity in the Economy

Boston is a national leader in creative arts. We have many national and internationally recognized museums, concert halls, and institutions that foster and spur talent and creativity. With the COVID-19 pandemic, this sector of the economy was hit particularly hard. Brian supports efforts to safeguard the creative economy and Boston’s arts and culture community. He believes that Boston’s rich cultural and creative history should be celebrated in our public institutions. As your City Councilor, Brian will promote creative activities and public art in the City and protect artists threatened by pandemic-related hardships.

Communities of color have historically faced the worst consequences of our Nation’s fossil fuel usage.  The ill effects of centuries of fossil fuels have disproportionately impacted disadvantaged groups such as communities of color, indigenous groups, women and people of lower income.  From air pollution to devastating floods, the structural injustices in our society have affected our lives for far too long.

Combating climate change, we have an opportunity to reshape our City on equitable grounds and provide a better, more just future for our City. As your City Councilor, Brian will fight for climate justice and work to ensure that Boston stays a national and global leader in combating climate change by supporting the reduction of carbon gas emissions, investing in green technologies, and deconstructing the current fossil fuel economy’s structural racism and economic inequalities. Brian supports investments in sustainable energy projects that create good, union jobs in the renewable energy sector. In City Council, he will demand accountability and transparency in current and future energy projects, as well as, support the existence and expansion of public greenspaces and air quality initiatives.